#littleray has a nursery

Our Christmas break was full of fun and family and productivity this year! It was so nice to have a whole week home with Rob and our little guy. Although we took turns being sick throughout the week we still enjoyed plenty of time with our families celebrating Christ's birth, a wedding, and the new year! 

Last night we finished littleray's nursery. It's a great feeling to walk by and see it completed. We are ready for him any time now! We can't believe that the time has come so quickly and we are in the final weeks of eagerly awaiting his arrival. 

This space came together just as we had imagined it would and we love it! 

We talked in a previous post about our ideas and color scheme but we still weren't sure where everything would end up and how it would come together. We changed a couple of our original ideas, but that's par for the course whenever we decorate a room!

First of all, let me say that painting with such a dark color of green is a bit scary! It ended up looking lush and lovely but it required two (thick) coats and after the first coat I was, admittedly, shaking in my slippers. It's weird to see that intense color rolled onto a white wall! I almost shied away but I'm glad I rolled with it (pun intended!)

The dark green adds a nice intensity to the room that is otherwise pretty light and bright. I decided to keep the branch hanging lighter so that it would pop off the wall. By using a yarn with variation in color I was able to keep it looking a little more "natural"; I chose to leave the bottom uneven for the same reason. We know that it might not be able to live above the crib forever - once littleray has grabby hands - but for now it creates a pretty and rustic picture! 

  

Opposite the crib are littleray's cabinet and changing table. We are thankful that we can use these pieces for little clothes and baby items and keep the small closet for toys and older boy clothing storage. It's nice to have all the little clothes kept behind closed doors and in drawers because even though they are caaaaaute, they can tend to look a bit messy. 

   

We wanted the room to holler 'boy' while still holding to our neutral tone from our first son's room. By mixing hard and soft patterns with warm and cool tones, I think we accomplished our goal. This fun yellow/lime chair adds brightness to this windowed cubby along the same wall as the crib and it's oh-so-comfy! We opted for soft watercolors paired with a heavy metallic arrow so neither would feel too prominent. The top watercolor will have littleray's name once he is born, but for now it will be blank until we make our announcement! 

   

On the other side of the crib, across the room from the comfy chair, there are cute little stuffed animal mounts alongside our favorite saying. Our first son has this saying in his room too and we thought it was perfect to have both our boys know that we love them to the moon and back! The wall mounted animals are from target's fall collection, I think I ended up grabbing them for less than $5 each on sale which is always a perk when decorating a room! You can see above that there is also a mounted stuffed bear near the comfy chair in the picture above, I thought they were too sweet to pass up!

We decided to skip the mountain shelf that we mentioned in our ideas post. It would have lived where the watercolors are now so we thought it would get a little crowded and displace already existing items. Didn't seem worth it to make something from scratch when we already had the goods to fill the space. We are also waiting on the crib skirt to be delivered (thank you amazon!) and then we will be 100% done with this room. We are so thankful for the generosity and love people have shown for this baby boy already, we all can't wait to meet him!! 

SHOP THIS ROOM:

{Paint} Glidden Universal Grey and Hunter Green

{Crib Sheets} Target

{Crib Skirt} Dwell Studio

{Pillows} Tootie and Tallulah's

{Rug} Home Goods

{Grey Handled Baskets} Home Goods

{Grey Geometric Baskets} Target

{Watercolor Prints} Home Goods

{Metallic Arrow} Home Goods

{Bear Head Mount} Target Similar Product 

{Love You To Moon and Back} Tootie and Tallulah's

{Crib/Changing Table/Dresser/Shelving} Bellini (Ours are secondhand but the company makes other beautiful pieces!)

*This post includes affiliate links. We were not paid to say anything nice about these products we just like these things and want you to know where you can get them too! 

the clock is ticking

As I write this (or part of it) my sweet two year old boy is napping and I can feel baby #2 doing flips and kicks like a crazy little ninja. To say that we are excited for this little one is an understatement and the time is really flying! 33.5 weeks and our little guy is growing like a weed, so much so that my Braxton Hicks contractions, which were non-existent with our first son, are definitely a real life factor! 

Needless to say, we have started preparing for our littlest boy's arrival. Let me assure you though, it's a much different preparation than we did for baby #1! With our first, we were so prepared with the nursery being practically ready by this point in my pregnancy. That is so not the case this time. We are as prepared as we can be as a family but physically this little guy's room is unpainted, obviously undecorated and unfurnished (though we have the furniture and will be picking up soon!). Last week I decided that I would at least start washing all the baby clothes so that even if he didn't have a room to call his own (were he to arrive early) he would at least have clothes to wear! Oh little brother, we love you more than you know but it's much harder to get things done now that we have a kiddo running around! 

This momma does have a good idea of how the nursery will end up though. At least I am good at making plans! Ha! We decided that we wanted another boyish room but had a hard time getting our son's room out of our head. We love the grey/wood/orange color scheme for a boy but we wanted these brothers to each have a space of their own (for now at least!) We decided to use a much, much lighter grey and a dark green tone. I was choosing between greens and when one had "Hunter" in the title I couldn't help but choose it! 

I painted a corner to see how the colors would meld together when they go up and so far so good. The dark green will only go on one wall and a window cubby while the rest of the room will be the lighter grey. I'm not usually certain about the lighter colors but once it hit the white wall, I knew it was the right choice to warm up the space. Again, this room is painted with a flat white paint (like the rest of the house) and it's so scratchy... who even uses flat paint for a whole room?? A fresh coat of paint will go a long way to modernize this room! The picture below is one coat with a paintbrush, I think that once the green is applied with a roller it should be nice and smooth! 

We are going a bit more rustic in this room than we did in our first son's nursery. A bit more texture mixing for a cozy feeling that will be different than the feeling one room over. With some wood framed watercolors, a geometric wool rug, wooden accents and metals mixed in, we are excited to see what happens as everything comes together. Below you can see the first thoughts/purchases for this room! 

After some additional decisions, purchases and a whoopsie-two-year-old-accident that landed one of those framed prints on the floor with broken glass (no worries, no one was hurt!) we have honed our design and landed on a final idea for the room. 

   

The chair was a gift from my mom and it's so comfortable! The colors needed to be taken into account for the room because it certainly isn't neutral, though not quite as dark as the photos above are showing. The rug - while neutral - is a nice fun pattern that will liven up the space while being a cozy space to play with our boys! The broken glass was removed from the frame (which is harder than you would think!) and we are going to put this little one's name over it. We didn't want to give away any spoilers so I laid out "BOY" for now to give the general idea. And who doesn't love a little stuffed taxidermy creature, man oh man they are so cute! 

We also have a couple DIY projects for this baby's room. We wanted to make a few things with our own hands since we did that in our first son's room with the arrows above his crib and his side table! We are going to once again make the wall decor that will go above the crib and instead of a side table, since the space is configured differently, we are going to make a shelf that will hang on the wall to store the necessities of rocking chair time! 

   

These photos will serve as our inspiration but we will be making them our own based on color and size requirements for this room. We like how the yarn wall art is rustic but soft which will reflect well on the watercolors and other art we have ready for this room. The shelf is far from traditional and adds a little flavor while being completely useful! 

We will be starting on this room little by little in the next days! Hopefully at the end of the next five or six weeks when this baby is ready to meet us, we will have a space all his own that he will live in and love for years! 

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For those of you who have been following along, here is a sneak peek of the kitchen. Yes, we are still putting in the finishing touches so the full reveal is yet to come but we wanted to give a little glimpse into the kitchen we are daily living in (and loving)! This photo was taken weeks ago so it's a few steps behind our current situation, but the counters are so clean and pretty so I had to use it! ;) 

A new space for our growing boy!

The first room in the house to get cleaned, painted, refinished floors and decorated was our little guy's room. It feels a little less nursery than before but since he is still in his crib and we are in complete denial that he is growing up we are still rocking the original nursery vibe. 

I started by painting all the trim in his room the day we closed. It was a super high priority for us to get our buddy's room done before we moved in so that he could have a smooth transition to the new house. Everything in this house is dingy and needs a good scrub and we are pretty sure that every wall is painted with flat paint which makes everything look dull. By putting a coat of semi-gloss on the trim, baseboards and windows we brightened everything up a bit. We also used satin paint on the walls to make them scrubbable and durable for little boy dirt! 

   

As you can see things get a little weird after a long day of closing and starting projects! Nothing like a painting selfie to keep you going. You can (kind of) see in the picture on the left above the difference between our fresh semi-gloss white and the flat white. In person, it's pretty obvious.  

After painting the trim, I went around and edged in the room. I don't like to tape off rooms cause I think it just takes too long so I spent a little extra time being careful when I edged with my favorite shorty brush* to get a clean edge. Rob came in while I was putting my second coat on the edging the rolled the walls. Teamwork makes the dream work people. 

We chose to go a shade lighter than his room in our 1st house because it was going to be covering the whole wall. At the other house there was wainscoting in his room which supported the darker grey. The difference in lighting between the old house pictures and new house makes the color look super similar but there is a difference, promise! 

After some decisions about what goes where and how we wanted to maximize his space we ended up with another sweet space for our boy. We love the windows and how sunny his room gets. After having his room up in our bungalow's second floor (the cave room) we are loving the brightness! The curtains on the larger window are no longer tied, we were just trying to "train" them to stay open. Blackout curtains are so thick!

   

There is a whole other view to this room facing towards the camera that we will be posting soon along with the little dude's playroom pictures! Keep your eye out! 

*This post includes an affiliate link. We were not paid to say anything nice about this product, Lindsey just loves it!

How to: Wooden Arrow Wall Decor

Rob and I wanted Baby Rebhan's nursery to be perfect. We looked at lots of pictures and decided on certain elements we liked. We chose to make whatever we could instead of buying. It was fun to create items from simply looking at a picture and we saved lots of money doing it that way! 

One of my favorite elements in the nursery is the wooden arrow decal above our son's crib. It was a simple project that we finished in one day and it makes a big statement! 

Here is a step by step of how we completed this simple project!! 

1. GETTING SUPPLIES: We went to Home Depot to buy the wood, metal plates, screws, and brackets to hang our finished product.

For three arrows:

   - Wood: 2 Poplar 1x5 boards (6 feet each)

   - 3 L-shaped Metal Plates

   - 1inch screws

   - 3 picture hanging toothed brackets 

2. MAKING THE CUTS: We cut each board into 6 individual sections. We saved wood by making angled cuts instead of later trimming rectangles. The first cut should start at the bottom corner of the board while it's laying flat on your saw; cut a 45 degree angle off the end. You'll end up with a small triangle falling off the full board. The rest of the cuts should be measured from the bottom of the board, we chose to use 10 inch increments. The image below is a representation of the first segment only, imagine the board extending to the right (another small triangle will fall off the far end too). 

3. SANDING: After cutting the boards (see all the extra triangles in the photo below!), we sanded them so there were no rough edges from the cutting. We didn't spend a lot of time making the boards perfect because no one would ever touch them. We just made sure there were no frayed ends!

4. STAINING: After wiping any remaining sanding dust off the boards, I used old rags to apply Minwax Wood Stain in Special Walnut 224. Fortunately, we had this stain lying around the house (I had bought it for a previous project but ended up using another color). I like to use rags because the stain goes on in a thin layer verses using foam brushes and having to wipe off the access later. I also like it because you can see the result immediately. I ended up using two coats, I thought about three but figured it would be too dark compared to the other wooden elements in the nursery. We chose not to seal the arrows because, again, no one was going to be touching them and they wouldn't ever be exposed to high amounts of moisture (read water rings). 

   

5. ASSEMBLY: After all the boards were dry I matched them up in groups of four that fit best together. Even though they are all cut the same, there is always some human error. Once they were matched, I was able to pick which side of each board I liked the best. Because some have knots and some don't the stain is a little different on each piece. After I decided what pieces went best together, I laid the arrow face down and lined up the metal plate. I decided to put the screws in with a screwdriver instead of an electric drill with just a little (wo)man power! I was worried that the electric drill would split the wood and I didn't want to have to start over! Once the arrows were whole, I attached my hooks. I found that the "center" of the arrow was above the top corner of the metal bracket and that's where I nailed in the hooks (not pictured).  

6. HANG IT UP! It's as simple as that, hang on desired wall and enjoy!! 

I hope this can inspire you to create your own version of something you found online! It can be fun to create without guidelines but if you need them, here they are! Please let us know if you have any questions by commenting here or emailing us. As always, ENJOY and show us what you come up with!! 

Making it all fit

Now that we have lived here for more than a year the basement has undergone some renovation, reorganization and most recently we've changed it's function.

When we first moved in we used the basement as an office of sorts. Rob's computer was down there as was my crafting desk, so we used the space to work on projects and hang out while the other was working. It wasn't decorated, there was barely any furniture and it felt like a dark basement. It was a waste of much needed space in our small home. 

Over the summer we decided that we wanted to have some part of the house, other than our bedroom, that was carpeted. We figured with a baby on the way we should have some space to put toys and let a babe romp around without fear of falling on the hardwood or marble flooring. The basement seemed like the best option since it would mean that we wouldn't have to cover any of the original wood floors. Plus the existing basement carpet was horrendous so it was the perfect choice. Below is a picture from when the laundry room flooded, yet another reason to rid the basement of it's old floor covering. 

The original carpet in the basement was directly on the cement floor so it was hard as a rock. We called Empire and it was a simple process that was started and finished in two days. We chose a very neutral color but added padding and a deeper plush to the carpet itself; much more acceptable for a baby to crawl all over and the change made the basement feel more like a part of the house. 

   

You can see in the picture on the left above that we left the original carpet 

on the stairs because we plan on refinishing with a rustic wooden stairway. 

Once the carpet was installed, we needed a place to put the furniture that had been in the den because that room would now be the nursery. This is when we had to do some problem solving, without getting rid of any furniture we had to add a whole new room to our house. 

Rob's desk moved up into the nook in our bedroom where the dogs beds used to be. Moving his desk created space in the basement for the futon and one of the black side tables that was formerly in the den. We also took the tv and buffet from the living room and moved it one floor straight down. Now we have a living room on the main floor and a family room in the basement. The black cubicle unit is now part of an entertainment unit in our bedroom and the only piece we retired was the red chair... it had seen better days. 

The transition happened little by little but now it seems like this is the way our house should have been set up all along. We stretched the little bit of space we have as far as it will go and we are very happy with the way it feels now! 

Do you wanna see the nursery??

Before we even found out I was pregnant, I had visions of what I hoped our little one’s nursery would eventually look like. I had the Pinterest board and the sketches; essentially just a dream of what a sweet baby’s nursery could be even when he was no more than a prayer. When we found out that we were officially going to be parents in the Spring of 2014 my dreaming turned into planning: weeding through the pins, picking out paint, and making decisions that would make our sweet boy’s nursery a comforting space just for him. 

The vision was to have grey walls, white wainscoting, natural wood accents, with orange detailing scattered throughout. Thankfully, that is exactly what we ended up with! We mixed modern furniture with rustic accents and simple solids with bold patterns. We wanted some interest without the room feeling too busy because before we know it our little boy will have toys strewn about and that will be busy enough!  

Rob and I had such a blast taking my sketches (which at one point were taped all over the nursery door!) and making them into reality. We built the side table for the glider, re-crafted the floating shelf, installed the new closet system, and made the wooden arrows above the crib. We had so much fun working on these projects knowing that they were for our little boy!

     

All the furniture was either imagined and made by Rob and I or was handed down from our childhood bedrooms. The white crib and glider (though reupholstered) were Lindsey's as a girl and the chest of drawers was Rob's. We are so thankful for our awesome Moms (and Dads) who took such care of these pieces for so long! 

   

This nursery has turned out to be my favorite room in the house for two reasons: it came out exactly how we imagined it would and it's our son's room. We are so thankful that our prayers were answered and he is now here with us! It's an amazing feeling to love someone so deeply that you haven't even met yet, I wanted things to be perfect for him. It struck me that as we were building a place for our son, so is Christ preparing a home for us in Heaven (John 14:1-7). Heaven: how much cooler is that!

Currently, Baby Rebhan (only one week old in the picture above) doesn't sleep in his nursery overnight but we spend time in there every day and we love to rock together in the glider. As I type, our son is smiling and cooing while he sleeps in his bassinet in our bedroom. We aren't sure when the final transition will happen but we are so thrilled that he has such a cozy space to call his. 

Where is it from??

>>> Area Rug: Home Goods

>>> Toy Basket: TJMaxx

>>> Fox and Alphabet Pillow: Tootie and Tallulah's

>>> Sheepskin Rug: IKEA

>>> Crib Sheets: Target

>>> Bedskirt: BuyBuyBaby

>>> Love You To The Moon and Back art: Tootie and Tallulah's

>>> White Frames: Target

If I missed anything, or you have any other questions feel free to comment below or send us an email!!